GRAPHIC DESIGNERS FROM OUR DESIGN COMMUNITY
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by: Richard Lowe
I
know you like to put graphics on your page. There is
little
better than a site which has been done by a professional
graphics designer. The perfect balance between graphics,
color,
fonts, photos and layout is rare and a wonder to behold.
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On
the other hand, a site with bad graphics or some obvious
blunders can be agonizing and even painful to look at.
Here are
some of the more common errors.
Large Graphics
Large
graphics have their place on the web. Some sites give
away
massive numbers of wallpaper images, which by definition
are
very large. In fact, I know of a site which offers over
a
thousand Tomb Raider wallpapers that is very good.
What
you want to avoid is using large graphics on your main
pages. Instead, you can use a technique such as showing
thumbnail images or links to the larger graphics. Thus,
those
people who want the large graphics can get them, while
those who
do not are not forced to wait for them to load. The
Tomb Raider
site solved this problem by including 100 very small
(32 x 32
pixel) thumbnails on a page. Clicking on an image displays
the
larger wall wallpaper.
Improperly Optimized Graphics
All
of the common graphics formats (GIF, PNG and JPG) allow
for
compression of various kinds. One common error is to
not take
advantage of this compression. For example, you can
cut down the
number of colors in a GIF image, which makes it smaller.
Or you
can increase the loss percentage in a JPG, substantially
reducing it's size.
Why
do you want to do this? Simply so that your visitors
do not
have to wait for a long time while your graphics load.
Animations
Check
the section called "Animation Mistakes" for
many common
errors with animated graphics. Suffice to say that less
is
generally better.
Graphics which Require Plug-Ins
There
are some graphics formats which require exotic and obscure
plug-ins in order to be seen. While there are advantages
to
using plug-ins (Adobe Acrobat comes to mind as an excellent
plug-in to use) they should be avoided when possible.
Most of
your visitors will not take the time to install a plug-in
just
to see your web site.
Garish backgrounds
Keep
your background graphics simple and neat. You want to
make
sure the graphics are subtle and contract greatly with
your
text. In other words do not use a light pink background
with
light red characters. Very hard to read. Also avoid
neon or
other bright backgrounds - these tend to so overpower
your web
site that people leave almost immediately.
About
the author:
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet
Tips And Secrets.
This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve
your
internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge. Web Site
Address:
http://www.internet-tips.net Weekly newsletter:
http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm Daily Tips:
mailto:internet-tips@GetResponse.com
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